Description
Associated Food Stores is an American retailers cooperative that supplies about 500 independently owned retail supermarkets throughout Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Nevada and Wyoming. The company was founded by Donald P. Lloyd in 1940, who was the president of the Utah Retail Grocers Association. It reported over US$1.6 billion in sales during fiscal year 2007 and is currently the fifty-sixth largest grocery retailer in the country by volume [1] with 23% of its total sales coming from its corporate stores.
In 2009, Associated Food Stores purchased 34 Albertsons stores in Utah from Supervalu Inc. The stores were renamed Associated Fresh Market and focus on fresh produce and meat. At the end of October 2010, 3 stores were closed due to poor performances. [2] Since then, five additional FreshMarket stores have closed, leaving them with a total of 26 as of early 2012.[3]
